Hello forum!

I have recently found something that bothers me quite a bit about my car. My a/c on and off has made this rumbling noise and so I took it apart and pulled out the fan from under the passenger side glove box compartment. So far so good, changed the filter while in there and the sound was due to a million leafs lodged in the fan and also the filter.
After further examination I noticed that under the hood, on the passenger side, the little rubber cover is missing allowing leafs to clog the drain but most importantly, that's how they get into the cabin.
On the driver side, there were some leafs in there too, but not nearly as many as that cover is keeping them out. I don't know how to explain what that cover looks like so I will just post a couple of pictures.
I assume it would make sense to take off the whole piece, surrounding the windshield wiper arms in order to clean under there. If you have instructions for that I'd be happy, but I'm sure I can find them through the search function.
So my most important question is, what to do about that missing cover? I know even though I cleaned everything up and the a/c fan runs as smooth as ever, I will have the same problem again as leafs will flow down that area under the hood again and reach the cabin through there.
I'm grateful for any ideas!

Thanks a bunch as always. The forum has been awesome and you guys usually come up with great solutions so I figured I'd ask.
Please see pictures below!

Nick

 

First that is not the AC compressor, it is just the air circulation fan. The AC compressor is on the DS front and operated by the serpentine belt that drives the other accessories, water pump, alternator etc.
There should be a seal there like on the DS, even with the seal small leaves and debris get in there and block the drain and some of them get through the cabin air intake just above the drain, a design weakness. Every so often these leaves should be removed, carefully done they can be removed through the seal fingers, if not done the drain gets blocked and water gets into the cabin air intake, soaks the floor and ruins the fan unit. When you have removed the debris run some wire or water from a hose through the drain holes, there are four if I recall correctly, one at each end and two in the centre. I accessed the WW fluid reservoir behind the PS fender and cleaned the leaves that had gone down the drain, there was quite a lot of it and it would only collect water and rust in time.
The following PDF shows what it looks like under the plastic cowl, this PDF shows how to add the missing isolator grommet but shows the general area,
To remove the cowl you have to remove the windshield wipers first and remove the screws holding the cowl in place, You then disconnect the windshield wiper fluid tubes and the heater wires for the WW fluid heaters. I think some of this may not be required and you can fold the cowl forward, but it is easier to get it out of the way.
CLICK for PDF

 

The cover ,as you say, is the one that you have pictured on the drivers side. This is an on going problem for all of us. If you stay of the forum , usually in the spring an fall , you will see members reminding each other , time to clean out under the cowl. There are drainage tubes in there that carry water out. When they clog up , most times, it runs in an floods the passenger floorboard causing numerous problems. I'm glad you got on this before an further damage was caused.

 

Last time I had the cowling loose, (replaced d/s washer nozzle), I wedged some metal screen, (1/4 inch), over the drain openings to catch debris & still allow water to run down. A little easier to take care of now. Might be a good time to replace (an original) alarm siren while the cowling is loose or removed, (bought mine thru an online Dealer in Texas if I recall).

 

Replacing an alarm that is working fine is probably a waste of money unless you replace the OEM alarm with one that beeps when opening or closing the doors.

Replacing the batteries before they leak and ruin the PCB is a good idea and a much cheaper than replacing it with another one. The PDF by ala_xfire is a good set of instructions on how to replace the batteries.

 

First of, I want to thank all of you for the information. It helps out a lot. Sorry for sounding ridiculous when it comes to terminology. I know how to turn a wrench, I am just not well versed with the English car terminology. Being from Germany originally, especially those terms are lacking in my vocabulary so an a/c compressor turns into a fan and vice versa . My apologies for that!

Now on to the next...I am going to tackle this issue next weekend. I need to figure out a way to replace the rubber "fingers" (what I called cover) where it's missing with something that works.
Also, thanks for the tip with the alamr/Siren. My alarm hasn't worked in a while since it went off randomly on numerous occasions and then just stopped. This will in fact be a good time to replace the unit. Now, do you think it is only the batteries that need to be replaced or the whole unit? How would I be able to tell? As I said, a few months ago the alarm would go off randomly and ultimately started sounding lower and lower and slower and slower and then went out all together which makes me believe it might just be the batteries? I vaguely remember reading in the forum the battery acid leaks over the unit a lot of times and so the whole thing needs to be replaced. Where do I find the module? Am I looking for an alarm module or Siren? Is there a diy for that job?
Lots of questions...all your advise is much appreciated!

Have a nice Sunday everyone!

 

How to replace worn batteries in the siren. CLICK
The beeping siren. CLICK
Under the cowling. CLICK